Back when I was a whee whippersnapper, we would click the reply button and type, “Ok”, or “thanks”, or “Ok, thanks”, or “gotcha”, or “:-)”, or “+1”, or “LOL”, or “LMFAO”, or … I mean, it was onerous, with those extra couple clickity clicks and tappity taps, but somehow we managed.

This should be the top comment. Now, excuse me. I’ve got a donation to go make.

ETA: Done. I felt dirty using Paypal, but I was being lazy, right up until Paypal barfed up some error saying “This credit card can’t be used something something blah blah blah. Let’s try a different one.” In response to which I suddenly found the energy to go find the checkbook and an envelope.

after ChatGPT found

Did it, though? Or did it just tell you that make a probabilistic guess that those particular words could follow your prompt in that particular order, and you just credulously believed it.

Maybe you missed this part in the snippet above.

Those using ChatGPT showed significantly less activity in networks tied to cognitive processing and attention compared to students who wrote without digital help or used only internet search engines. Almost none could recall what they had written immediately after submitting their work. She received more than 4,000 emails afterward. Many came from teachers who reported students producing passable assignments without understanding the material. A British survey found that 92% of university students now use AI and roughly 20% have used it to write all or part of an assignment. Independent research has found that more screen time in schools correlates with worse results. Technology companies have designed products to be frictionless, removing the cognitive challenges brains need to learn. AI now allows users to outsource thinking itself.

Who are you calling buster, buster?

I can only imagine the utter chaos this would cause in a cube farm.

But, the only place where talking to your computer at length makes any sense whatsoever is where you’re alone in a private office and nobody outside of the office can hear you. Nobody wants to hear other people talking to their computer, and nobody wants other people listening to what they’re doing on the computer.

My spouse and I both work from home and keep our office doors open so that the cats can come and go. We have absolutely no interest in hearing each other work. I know couples that share a home office. It’s like these fucknut executives at M$ think everyone either lives alone or has a private office in the east wing of their McMansion.

And all of that is ignoring the fact that you shouldn’t need AI to interpret what somebody wants a computer to do. Discreet commands for discreet tasks have been a thing for as long as computers have existed and there’s no reason for that to change, regardless of the input method. Making commands fuzzy and open to interpretation is not an improvement.

You don’t need to know why anyone wants to do a thing to advocate for their freedom to do it.

You don’t know why they might want to do this thing. I also don’t know why they would want to do this thing. The difference is, I 👏 Don’t 👏 Care 👏. My opinion of their reason to want to do it is irrelevant to my advocating their freedom to do it.

And that’s all I’m going to say on the subject. If you can’t understand that basic fact, then I don’t know what else I can say.

what reason would anyone have

That’s none of your business. You don’t need to know why anyone wants to do a thing to advocate for their freedom to do it.

Just because you lack the imagination to think of reasons someone might have, doesn’t mean that they don’t have a perfectly good reason. But, they shouldn’t need to justify themselves to you.

Why do you need to know how other people use software to understand why arbitrary limits are arbitrary?

Why would anyone need to turn it on or off 3 times in a year?

Why would they need to limit you?

No, that’s illegal. They’ll make it out to the Trump Presidential Library

Some of these devices have even been known to look for other similar devices within WiFi range, and phone home that way (i.e., send analytics data via a neighbor’s connected TV as a proxy).

Ummm, wut? I’m going to need some quality sources to back this claim up.

Value Valve

That makes a lot more sense than sea water and fresh water.

Friggin hell. Thanks.

I think the article author is completely confused and doesn’t understand what’s happening. There are hints of what’s happening in this paragraph.

Fresh water—or treated wastewater—is placed on one side of a membrane. On the other side is seawater, made even saltier by concentrating leftover brine from a desalination process. The difference in saltiness pulls the fresh water across the membrane, increasing the pressure on the saltwater side. That pressure is then used to drive a turbine, generating electricity.

I don’t think any fresh water is being used. I think what’s actually happening is…

Very salty wastewater (from the desalinization plant) is placed on one side of a membrane. On the other side is seawater. The difference in saltiness pulls the wastewater across the membrane, increasing the pressure on the saltwater side (or maybe the other way around). That pressure is then used to drive a turbine, generating electricity. The waste then is just water that’s saltier than sea water, but less salty than what came from the desalinization plant.

So, then why are you confused about what’s using power at night?

Do you go to bed at sunset?
Do you turn off your heat at sunset in the winter? Maybe you do, but most people don’t.

Also, most people with an electric car and a garage to park it can just use a cheap Level 1 charger to trickle charge it whenever it’s in the garage and always have plenty of range for their commute and errands. This means all of those cars are charging. … at night while the owner sleeps.

I can hear your Mom all the way from here telling you to clean your room.

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve walked away from some online product or service that I was interested in but refused to publicly disclose prices beyond, “FrEe TrIaL!”

Nah thanks. If you’re playing mind games like that right off the bat, that tells me everything I need to know about the experience of using the product.